Nightmare from the Past: Referee appointed for FC Basel vs. Manchester City (12/2/2017)

Manchester City fans may have flashbacks to 2014 and a Martin Demichelis red card with news that Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson has been placed in charge of tomorrow’s Champions League tie against FC Basel.

City will face the Swiss champions in the first-leg of their Round of 16 draw, and it will be 43-year-old Eriksson with the whistle for his third Man City game.

The Blues have yet to win when Eriksson has had the whistle, with his first appointment coming all the way back in 2011 and the club’s introduction to the Champions League, a 1-1 draw against Napoli in which he handed out 5 yellow cards (only 1 to City).

More recently and vivid in the mind is the Round of 16 first-leg against Barcelona at the Etihad in 2016, when the game was finely poised at 0-0 before Eriksson sent off Demichelis for a challenge that was outside the box – but a penalty was given. Lionel Messi stepped up, scored, and City went on to lose 2-0.

Eriksson’s most recent Basel appointment was their shock 1-0 win over Liverpool in October 2014.

Pep Guardiola will hope for a much better result than Eriksson’s previous in charge of City when his team visit St. Jakob-Park tomorrow.